Ending a series with the right story at the right time is tricky.

It's easy to tack on additional episodes and seasons, but if they're bursting at the seams with filler, it ruins the allure of what made the show so fun in the first place. 

The Flight Attendant Season 1 Episode 8 was the perfect last hurrah for Cassie as she managed to live another day, return to her job, and start an exciting new chapter in her life.

Even though Cassie was evading the law and a deranged serial killer throughout The Flight Attendant Season 1, she was also heavily drunk for the most part.

The breakthrough in Rome about alcohol being linked to all of her bad decisions allowed her to turn over a new leaf in the end. If you told me that this messy young woman would be able to do that after The Flight Attendant Season 1 Episode 1, I'd have probably laughed in your face.

Cassie made truly terrible decisions, and with this being the conclusion to the miniseries, it wouldn't have been that surprising if she died at the final hurdle due to another bad decision.

Feliks, Buckley, or whatever his freaking name was, was clearly not as bright when it came to killing people as he would like everyone to believe.

The only people he managed to kill were Alex and the detective. That's a large victory for the people like Cassie and Miranda, who very much play in the grey area of things.

Feliks had many similarities to Joe from YOU, but he was not as charismatic or as cunning. He was actually pretty tedious in the end, and he left all of the seeds along the way for Cassie to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but he needed to spell it out for her.

The major flaw I have with Feliks being this big villain is that he was present for a lot of things that went down, even looking her in the eye on occasion.

The message I'm taking from this is that, had Cassie not been drunk for every beat of the story, she would have put it all together sooner. Maybe she would have managed to go to the cops in Bangkok the moment Alex was killed.

The fight in the hotel room lacked the excitement you would expect from such a momentous moment. Cassie knew Feliks was gunning for her and would be coming for her harder than before after getting him in trouble at the airport.

Anyone being targeted, looking over their shoulder, et al., would have checked the entire room while in the presence of someone else. It's difficult for me to believe that she wouldn't have found Miranda out cold and Feliks standing above her in the tub.

It was an unfortunate direction, but it did allow us to learn the truth about Shane, a character who spent most of his time on the periphery. Working for the CIA and investigating Megan made a lot of sense in the end.

Heck, Megan working with North Korea also made sense. Megan was sketchy as hell when talking about the FBI earlier in the season, leading me to believe she was trying to pin a crime on Cassie.

Megan leaving her family behind and rushing off into the night certainly suggests she's going to do something to fix her mistakes, but she's been working with some bad people.

She probably won't ever be able to return to the U.S. again, so she's destined for a life on the run until she's ultimately caught. I liked that she helped Cassie with airport security.

It harkens back to the way she kept saying her best friend was ignoring her. Megan desperately wanted to come clean about her crimes and felt like she could trust Cassie.

They both went through a lot during the series, and while Megan's was more self-inflicted, she wanted to keep Cassie close.

Annie working with the FBI is something I didn't see coming. She was so against them as they pursued Cassie, but everything started to fall into place when she took all the information into the office.

The major positive was that the characters grew throughout this experience, but the biggest surprise is that Miranda is still contacting Cassie.

A part of me felt Miranda was going to be more wicked than she was portraying herself. I get that she killed a lot of people, but she genuinely cared for Cassie's wellbeing, in the end, even putting herself in harm's way to save her.

Slipping the book into Cassie's pocket to let her know she had the money and would be in contact soon is certainly a hook for another season, but this was the best place to end the series.

We don't need to see Lionfish being brought to its knees. At the root of this story was a young woman struggling with bad decisions and alcoholism, and we concluded with a very rounded story of her on the road to recovery.

"Arrivals and Departures" did have flaws, but it was an enjoyable farewell to this fast-paced world in which everyone is double-crossing someone.

What did you think of Cassie's goodbye? Do you think she will be able to stay off the alcohol? Do you see her working for the CIA, or would she botch the job?

Hit the comments below.

Stream The Flight Attendant in its entirety on HBO Max.

Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.